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LOL...too true. I remember hearing recently that what makes it so difficult to loose weight is that it doesn't take many calories to maintain weight. Many "people of size" have to seriously restrict themselves and work out ridiculously until they reach a point where thier muscle quantity starts helping them burn. I've been through this before and I had to be on a ridiculously restrictive diet and worked out for 3-4 hours a day to loose a couple pounds a week. It didn't start coming off quicker until I gained more muscle mass and that muscle helped me burn more. It really can be tough and I think it's just hilarious that you have folks here goofing about the lack of discipline fatties have while they are probably puffing on a cancer stick, finishing off thier 6th brew, or working themselves to death. I've found every person I've ever known lacks discipline in one way or another, it's just that fat folks carry thier lack of discipline with them and others are easier to hide. In the end, the hate of fat is a hate of self discipline one sees in themselves. Fat's just an easy target.

Trouble is, if you severely restrict calories, you lose muscle mass. That's what makes it harder. You have to feed your muscles and try to burn fat at the same time.

What you really need to do is forget the scale and concentrate on how your clothes fit. That's a much better indication of progress. A good method is to buy a pair of pants that are too small, and try them on periodically.

I've gone from wearing size 54 Levis to around 44, and I'm shooting for 38. In fact, I'm going to pull out my size 40s right now and try them on.

I'll try to get motivated instead of getting angry, despite the rotten things a few people are saying here.

I remember hearing recently that what makes it so difficult to loose weight is that it doesn't take many calories to maintain weight. Many "people of size" have to seriously restrict themselves and work out ridiculously until they reach a point where thier muscle quantity starts helping them burn.

This is exactly right. The more a person "diets," the more the body acts as if it's being starved. The more "hunger hormone" (ghrelin) gets produced in the stomach, and the lower the metabolic rate drops. If you needed 2000 calories to maintain your weight before, after a spate of dieting you may need 1700. There are women out there (it's always worse w/ women because they have so much less muscle mass than men) who are maintaining their body weight on 900-1100 calories a day.

As you said, sometimes that means *3-4 hours of exercise* a day to just burn off 3500-4500 calories (1-1 and a half pounds) a week.

This doesn't even take into account the emotional factors. Many women (again, it tends to be more of a woman problem) are depressed, and they self-medicate with food, especially carbohydrates and sweets. (Curiously, one side effect of anti-depressants is often weight gain, which is pretty counterproductive.)

The basic point is that retaining weight *is* a genetic trait. We are designed to very efficiently store calories. Yes, if fat people are dumped in the Sudan they will lose weight - anyone will if the food isn't there. What many fat people *cannot* do easily is stop eating *when food is available.* When they go through binges interspersed with dieting it just gets worse.